Saturday, August 12, 2017

Following the rest of this series is a little up in the air
for me this weekend, and I’d like to shake things up in the dog days anyway.
The most noteworthy part of the series, barring more Moncada heroics or
neighborly spats turned benches cleared (good for the soul sometimes), was the
White Sox debut of Reynaldo Lopez last night. Has been inevitable for a while
now, and he made the most of his first start last night. Deserves a full
breakdown.

Scouting Report:

Giolito was the headliner initially
for the Eaton deal, but Lopez was the one coming in with actual major league
experience. I thought it was a couple
starts and relief appearances back in Washington but didn’t realize until this
week that he pitched in the NLDS. The fastball is what you notice first, flirting
with triple digits on occasion, and the slider complements that very well- 85
with a lot of movement. Throws a good curve and, on the rare occasion, a
change-up (we’ll get into that later).

1st inning:

Good first impression on the
leadoff batter: Merrifield watches a slider go by for a called third. Fastball
coming in at 97 mph pretty consistently, and he’s hitting his spots with it for
the most part. He really brings the
heat next at-bat, getting Cain swinging at 98 on the gun. Lot of scouts have
said we’ll probably be getting used to that.

Dances
around Hosmer a little too much and forces the walk. Standing ovation follows-
Melky Cabrera returns to the Southside for his first game as a Royal. (A pretty
funny moment when we’re all sitting back down and the guy next to me yells “Now
strike him out!” with great comedic timing.) Gets him to fly out to shallow
left. Hit 99 and 100 in this inning supposedly- guessing that’s the hometown
speed gun talking.

2nd inning:

The filthiest thing I saw
all night came in the first at-bat against Moose: fouls off four fastballs and
is down 1-2. Throws another fastball out of the zone (98) and follows it up
with a 78 mph curve to get him swinging. Almost unfair, that bait.

Have
said in a previous post about Rodon that young strikeout-oriented pitchers make
me a little nervous: the huge upside for them is outs without a ball put in
play, the downside is my three sins of strikeout pitchers. The first sin is
catching on to the gameplan right away: eventually the Royals start watching a
lot of curveballs, which a strikeout pitcher tends to throw for less accuracy.
If trying to just get an out (usually a groundout), it has to be in the zone
enough for the batter to swing at with enough movement to negate solid contact.
A strikeout pitcher will want much more movement with less intent to throw a
strike: doesn’t matter if it’s in the zone or in the dirt if the outcome is the
batter swinging and missing. Royals catch on and adjust accordingly.

Lopez
walks one and strikes out the next two- slider working early. Four change-ups
supposedly thrown to Gordon, which would surprise me.

The
second sin of strikeout pitchers? Pitch count. Five strikeouts, 42 pitches
through 2.

3rd inning:

Butera
lines out on the first pitch, which is the best thing that could’ve happened to
Lopez. He needs a quick inning if he’ll make it through six. The next at-bat doesn’t help: he walks Merrifield, luckily not wasting many pitches in doing so. I’m curious to see
how he adjusts his gameplan for a situation where I’d assume he’d look to
forcing a double play. He does no such
thing: baits Cain with an off speed then blows him away with a fastball. Gets a
first pitch pop up the next at-bat, and he’s out of the inning on ten pitches.

4th inning:

The first sin of strikeout
pitchers: the hitters adjust accordingly

The second
sin: high pitch counts

The
third sin: you miss your spot, you’re in trouble. Home run trouble.

It
happens to every single strikeout pitcher, most obviously with Rodon and
Shields. It was also my one critique of Chris Sale: a lot of lines featuring 10
K’s, 1 home run. The more you dance around batters and the more bait pitches
you throw, the more pitches they hit the living snot out of when you miss your
spot. Case in point: Moustakas.

I
thought it was a change-up Lopez threw there, apparently it was a hung slider.
He wasn’t using it as a bait pitch so much as he did the curveball, but
sometimes your slider doesn’t- well, slide. Moonshot to the right field
bleachers, lead cut in half.

The
Royals get more aggressive at the plate this time through the order, following
the homer with two hits on two pitches. Now I’m really curious to see what he does in a less implied double play
situation. The foul out to hold ‘em was probably the highlight of the inning
(another good outcome for strikeout pitchers).

5th inning:

Great diving catch by Engel
saves Lopez the runner on nobody out trouble. Slider still coming in at around
85, but the fastball is losing some of the heat. (More of a fastball pitcher
problem than a strikeout pitcher problem, but those overlap more often than
not). Not sure if it’s necessarily a result of this, but Cain had a collision
with the wall earlier in the game that it looked like his wrist took the brunt
of. Lopez, that in mind or me looking to far into it, jams him for the foul out
to first. If so that’s a great pitching mindset.

Tim has
trouble with a ground ball and Abreu saves him with a pick. Seemed to catch him
off guard, and understood: it was Lopez’s first groundout of the game.

6th inning:

Lopez likely done after
this. Was likely done before the Moose home run, but that probably sealed the
deal (and unfortunately cost him the win). Homer came on a change-up, which
going in I’d heard Lopez throws very sparingly. Like, four change-ups a game
sparingly. He can get outs on his regular pitches, and it’s rare to be really,
really good throwing five different pitches. Eventually we might be forcing the
issue on those change-ups. Gets a
groundout and a pop out to close it out.

Overall
there’s a lot of potential here for
him. When he’s on he’s filthy: some of those 98’s on the corner and late moving
sliders were absolutely unhittable. Six K’s are nice, but the wins are better,
and unfortunately only two mistakes were enough to cost him that victory. Have
a feeling he’ll have a couple more of those games before this rebuild moves to
phase two. So it goes here.

Friday, August 11, 2017

Series like this for Houston must be why college admissions
require second semester grades from seniors. For the White Sox, awesome, sweeping
from a great team. For the Astros… work week series against a last place team?
Not a red flag in the dog days. Doesn’t seem like we saw the best of Houston
this homestand.

Don’t
always get to talk about a series win here, though, so let’s dive in. Avi
didn’t miss a beat coming back from the DL, putting us on the board right away Tuesday. More small ball follows for three more runs. Safe to admit that Keuchel
didn’t have his best stuff- again, weekday game, last place team. ‘Stros tie it
up right away before Kevan Smith takes over with a double and a homer
respectively. I boil the good from this game down to consistent good starts
from Holland, who definitely needed a win after getting cheated out of one last
start, and the young guys getting it done, which was a very pleasant theme all
series. Bullpen rocky, but that’s old news.

Wednesday was a clear mission for me to retire the “live by the long ball” rhetoric. Sans
the Tim Anderson (thank God) home run, all runs scored on singles or doubles, a
great sign of moving the chains in the batting order. Love Beloved Son
Moncada’s walks and Delmonico’s hot start, especially the middle of the order. Gonzalez
back to his solid self, lasting eight with little difficulty, a tough feat
against a team where half the lineup’s around .300.

Thursday.
The Moncada game. Why I said give it a full month before actual concerns about
him. Why the average doesn’t mean much. Why this guy has all the makings of the
real deal. Welcome to the show, companero.

The
obvious before last night: dude gets on base. I’ve already brought up his
vision at the plate here, but he has a knack for picking his pitches. It’s a
great tendency to have compared to prospects who get impatient at the plate and
swing at bad pitches, which leads to seeing less pitches, which leads to never
really figuring out pitch sequences in major league at bats. Yoan’s seen a lot
of pitches so far and seems to be getting the hang of how they’re pitching to
him. He also only has trouble with one
pitch, change-ups, which means fouling those off in favor of other pitches.
Different story if two or more pitches are a weakness.

Taking a 99 mph fast
ball to the opposite field bleachers in the bottom of the ninth is a very, very
good thing, with winning it on a base hit to boot. He’s here to stay, folks.

Credit Chicago Tribune

EDIT: Thanks to u/ChromiumSulfate for reminding me how days of the week work

Monday, August 7, 2017

"Yuck"- Dennis Eckersley describing rehab starts and the White Sox weekend series. Lopez on Friday most likely if you haven't heard. Besides Nick's first career homer and some solid at bats from Yoan, not much to say besides onwards with the tank.

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Time for new memos in the home Comiskey clubhouse. 16x20, framed,
bold, multiple copies to each infielder…

Always yield to your outfielder

ALWAYS YIELD TO YOUR
OUTFIELDER

ALWAYS YIELD TO YOUR OUTFIELDER

The heart attack symptoms have worn off
since Monday, so it won’t be more than a couple days off for Yoan in a one step
on the shallow end ladder entrance to the big leagues. A play like that involving your top prospect
will make you question where the nearest defibrillator is, me watching Twitter
like a hawk after. The true outcome: rookie Moncada making a rookie mistake,
which Willy unfortunately took the brunt of.

It happens. It also shouldn’t
affect the timeline for our other prospects, whatever each one might be. Aren’t going to become major leaguers playing
in a bubble.

And we got a win out of it! I
personally don’t care if we lose out, but post-collision, that’s a win I wanted to see. I haven’t brought
up Davidson much here given his uncertainty in the 2020 plan- third baseman is
the most likely future external hire for Rick given Donaldson and Machado’s upcoming
free agency. Write Sox also has a great tweet comparing his stats to Josh
Fields of 2007, and it’s a near mirror image. 22 home runs is 22 home runs, well
worth a long tryout based on this year. Games like Sunday and Monday also make
you forget the strikeouts pretty fast. Put that win on Renteria’s resume- these
guys really don’t quit under him.

The next two games were rebuild as
scheduled. Opposing home runs, strikeouts,
men left on base (today’s leadoff triple not scoring especially brutal)- all a
day in the life at this point. Holland had the quasi-rebound start I was hoping
for: way too many strikeouts and men left on to help him out today. Tankers
gonna tank, and grab some bench ten times.

Biggest big picture news
(unfortunately because of Garcia’s injury) was Delmonico’s call up. Did well
for the first two games: clearly some jitters, especially yesterday, but some
very solid contact. Ozzie mentioned it in the postgame Monday: it’s good to
have prospects come up and struggle against good teams, and this part of
Toronto’s rotation followed by a four game set in Boston would be just that. Not expecting much over the Mendoza with this
upcoming small sample size, with Tuesday making me feel a little more
optimistic about something in the .260-.270 range. Short fences to right in Fenway
if he wants to get some power on that swing, provided Austin Jackson isn’t
roaming around center.

Monday, July 31, 2017

Two more pitchers now White Sox extended family members now.
Friday showed us why.

It’s
tough to gauge pitchers in a purposeful tank season, for no other reason than
“why waste a major league caliber arm’s time”.
The somewhat risky (as in “who can make this tank bearable every five
days or so”) move to acquire Holland has at this point proven to not be his
needed change of pace: yesterday makes double digits in loss column, now three
losing affairs away from his career high, from his rookie year.

Grant
it, it’s the stud-loaded Indians roster in front of him and not the
consistently best in the west Texas Rangers behind him. He was a .500 pitcher
before us, but that’s the benchmark I’d like him to be hovering around. He’ll
take the mound against Toronto coming up, which should have enough starpower to
feel good about getting outs against and enough “good team in a bad year” vibe
to get a quality start against. No run support didn’t help Friday, but six runs
in barely over four innings tossed is the story.

If we
had to sum up the season so far (or at least post-Yankees trade), it’d probably
be the highlight of Infante drilling Guyer with the bases loaded. What a White
Sox way to lose one. Saturday night crowd, great giveaway jerseys everyone’s
stoked about, game close until past the point where families have stuck around…
then a bases loaded hit by pitch in the top of the ninth. If we’re going
full-blown tank and having an Airplane! movie emergency landing of a bullpen,
might as well make it entertaining while doing so. The bright spot: great
comeback against a great team, with guys who are part of the plan driving those
runs in.

Of that
plan, Sunday is why I still think Rodon will be someone that sticks around. Any
hesitancy stems from my overall skepticism of young strikeout pitchers: it
trends towards overpitching and risky pitches, and a higher pitch count early.
The bad for strikeout pitchers has been Rodon’s starts of late: 4 runs in 4
innings despite 11 strikeouts against the Cubs is the biggest example. The good
would be Sunday, going toe-to-toe with a no-hitter and making only one mistake
on that home run ball. Wins and losses don’t matter anyway, and now’s the time
for him to work out any kinks: he’s not the Sox child prodigy anymore, but
barring injury and bad habits, I’d expect him in for the long haul.

Moncada
watch: thought he was ok in the cleanup spot. I don’t necessarily see that
being where he winds up, but I’ll take doubles and dingers with men on. Once we
have our trying to win baseball games roster I imagine he’ll take second in the
lineup: that vision at the plate is no joke. For now let’s ride Sensai Saladino
out while we have him.

Lastly,
Cowboy Melky, we hardly knew ye. A big bright spot in the lineup when we needed
him most. Makes sense for the Royals in their last dance with these champs
season. The versatility of him at the plate makes him a pretty easy fit in most
rosters, and it’d be interesting to see if he’s the spark they need to make the
Tribe sweat a little.

Our
return, meanwhile:

A.J. Puckett

Hovering around .500 in
high-A. Seems to eat up a decent amount of innings and keep the ball in the
park. Not sure where he falls into the 2020 plan at age 22.

Can
never have too many pitching prospects, which is how the trade was made. A lot of the reactions to the more recent
trades has been apathy in regards to the return on them. A fair enough response
given the absolutely massive returns on the Sale, Eaton, and Quintana trades.
Melky Cabrera also isn’t an Adam Eaton: a proven but aging slugger won’t get
the same return as a young, speedy juggernaut with a cannon of an arm. Hahn’s master
plan is all but in place, and any recent deal is to swap out players that won’t
be part of it. Melky, sadly, was the next one to fall into this category.

He was probably the most realiable player on an unreliable team his time here. Any vet who stuck with us these past couple years deserves a lot of props. Go make the Central race we're out of a little more interesting, Cowboy.

Friday, July 28, 2017

I'll tear the bandage off quickly...
The Sox starters didn't look too bad in the first three innings of their respective starts on Wednesday and Thursday. But, predictably, the Cubs took both games on the South side and won the Crosstown Cup 3-1 in 2017. (A hollow victory...)
Ultimately, Shields' pitch count got the better of him in game one at Guaranteed Rate Field and got literally slugged out of the game. (Crazy stat about his six consecutive starts mid-season that totalled a 24+ ERA. Since then he had gone six starts with a 2.12 ERA. Once again- baseball.) Moncada flashed some "future hype" with a strong home run to dead center but the recently reverted reliever-from-starter Mike Montgomery covered the last three innings of a strong start from Jake Arrieta. He's finally beginning to regain some form- and when that happens, ask any team if theycan score more than 2 off him. The young Sox also didn't help themselves with some defensive miscues in the infield. Does Moncada play shortstop? Because 22 errors for Tim Anderson just doesn't seem to be cutting it.
I thought Pelfrey would stifle the Cubs a bit more on Thursday. (He had very similar numbers to Jon Lester, his opponent, coming into the matchup on the season aside from wins.) He did well in the first three, but as we've seen that doesn't always mean a good end result. The long ball was once again was prominent for both teams but more prevalent for the Cubbies.
In the end, as we've discussed, a pretty predictable series. The Sox beat up on the rebuilding Cubs a few years ago and the Cubs do the same here. Until next year, the Crosstown Cup will live on the North Side.

Feel no need to splurge for that McGregor-Mayweather fight
anymore- the pitching matchups in our homestand portion were the biggest
mismatch of the sports year.

The
Cubs can hit, and we can’t pitch. Some very solid pitching outings from Arrieta
and Lester, capped off with the majority of the Cubs lineup getting hits
against us. (Kyle Schwarber, two home
runs as the DH. Makes you think.) A four
game set with the defending champs is a tough National League draw after
playing the Dodgers less than a week, and it’s been pretty obvious from those
two series where both teams are at.

But
hey, first home run for Moncada, right?

On the
GM side, the bullpen’s a Catch-22. If you’re struggling, we let you labor, if
you’re decent, we’ll trade you. From where Swarzak started with us, it almost
has to feel good to be trade worthy. Curious about the return in Cordell, a 25
year old outfielder hitting .284 in the minors.
Assuming he’s an upcoming roster expansion addition. For Dan Jennings, a
first baseman prospect is the prize, one who’s having a down year in average but
with decent power and 44 RBIs. Don’t hate the thought of having a back up plan
if Abreu’s play at first keeps regressing, but Gillaspie seems to need a little
more progress. We’ve got the time for it, anyway.

Cubbies,
meanwhile. So hot right now. Buckle up for this weekend if you’re a Brewers
fan. And hope the breeze on 94 cools off hot bats.

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

What you
would expect is the rebuilding White Sox to lose (badly) in the Crosstown
Series to the Cubs, who came into baseball’s second half with a record of 8-1,
the best in baseball. But that didn’t
happen. As my dad always says: “That’s
Baseball.” (Clever, right?)

And here I
was—with those expectations—flexing my National League rules muscles with Kyle
Hendricks giving the Cubs the early lead on Monday with an RBI groundout. The Sox staff couldn’t possibly know what to
do with a bat in their hands? Nor could
their no-name roster handle last year’s ERA leader. Hendricks didn’t last long and threw a lot of
early pitches in his first start back from the DL, unfortunately.

But no
matter. The Cubs recently rejuvenated offense would soon begin their mash parade
on Miguel Gonzalez. After all, he would
worsen as the game went on—as his ERA has risen from 3.56 in the first three
innings of his starts to close to 5.00 in the 4th or later. Surely the Cubs could handle a placehold
starter? Or they’d just wait to attack
the dilapidated Sox bullpen whose best members have been dealt for prospects
and a chance to win on a contending team this year.

All the
while, the buzz from the crosstown rivalry in the stands on a picture-perfect
day at Wrigley Field didn’t inspire or spill onto the field for the home
team. The Cubs simply looked scared or
overwhelmed by playing their counterpart from the South side. Meanwhile, the White Sox—as it seems they
typically do against the Cubs—came to play and win. “Pathetic” was the word I used to describe
the Cubs performance on Monday.

Because,
after all, there were some things that were not surprising in that game. As I mentioned, the Sox came to play. The Cubs left 12. men. on. base. 12. (Opportunities
abound for that young Cubs offense but even last year where so many RISP were
overlooked by an abundance of runs, they have had to rely on far fewer chances
and an inability to capitalize on quality chances for potential runs this
season.) And Joe Maddon asked for and
received his death/loss wish when he called upon BOTH Justin Grimm and Koji
Uehara to relieve Hendricks in the 5th and 6th. Seriously: if you send Uehara out to throw a
wobbly splitter over the heart of the plate at 87mph every pitch, you’re gonna
have a bad time.

In the end,
give Gonzalez credit. He pitched very
well and took advantage of the fact the Cubs have never seen him. Swarzak was also able to conquer the
butterflies and lock down his first save, even with a patented late-inning
“Fake Rally” brewing. Also- should I
start calling Adam Engel (…who?) “New Spanky?”

Tuesday was
a little different and a little more “fun”—for many reasons. Wilson Contreras set the tone with the 3-run
homer in the first yet John Lackey did a very John Lackey thing in giving up a
2-run double to his counterpart, Carlos Rodon.
(Quit complaining about the pitcher’s hitting rule—it’s not so bad when that happens, eh? Although of course I’m biased because the
Cubs pitchers have been among the highest home run hitting staffs in baseball
over the past 5-10 years.) When Big John
also managed to plunk back-to-back batters in the 5th, once again,
the sort of mindless hype given to this series reared its ugly head. (Seriously: everyone needs to chill out about
these games. The moment shouldn’t be too
big for the Cubs to face their “rival” from across town…and I thought the Sox
wanted to tank? Just play baseball, people!) Manager Rick Renteria tried to
suggest that these wayward fastballs were intentional (and later retaliated. Don’t you DARE hit our prized new
rookie! There, there, Yoany…) No Ricky, he didn’t want to purposefully load
the bases, even with two outs. He’s
actually just that bad.

(What’s more
fun—I can assure you—is seeing Kris Bryant actually argue a third strike
call. I think I even saw him utter a
nasty word. So he is human after all…
Although if I was him I’d want to be ejected after shooting a baseball off my
tibia… it was still a terrible call, but I digress…)

Still, it
turned out more “as we expected” with a 7-2 win in the end for the Cubs. And that’s ok. Ever since the mighty schedule people have
changed this series to a measly 4 games in a row at the end of July every year,
the hype has been diminished if not snuffed out. With the current state of affairs, the Cubs
should win this thing more and the Sox should sort of welcome that (with a
“better draft position” at stake, according to another of my Sox fan
friends.) Let the players settle it on
the field with both teams trying but not taking this too seriously. My prediction of a road-team sweep on both
sides is unfortunately off the table… but my non-hot take of a split of this
series is still at large… That’s things as we expect, right?

Aren’t
those pitcher at-bats fun, kids?! Nothing I love more when I go to the ol’
ballpark than watching bad man Miguel Gonzalez hitting with runners on! Forget
that stain on the game designated hitter, children, it’s that strategy of
whether to pinch hit for our starting pitcher in the top of the second inning
that’ll save the game! Those bunt attempts, that’s what’ll bring the crowds in!

Maybe a
little bitter considering the runs Carlos Rodon drove in. I’m writing about the Cubs this series,
anyway, but I had to get some American League pride out of the way first thing
(I grew up with Frank Thomas, pry the designated hitter option out of my cold,
dead hands). Aside from being far and away the better team, being without a
designated hitter for the majority of their games denies Kyle Schwarber his
inherent birthright of the position he was born to play. Swing away, Hoosier
boy, to the moon! No man leaps out of bed at the thought of playing left field!

The
most common take/criticism/complaint/tweet from the end of the world from
Northsiders this season has been them struggling compared to last season. Thus far the Cubs are not on pace for their anticipated
115 wins (prediction taken from various shouts on the Red Line approximately
twenty minutes after a 2016 Cubs win). Last year was a juggernaut, jet-fuel,
Roadrunner paced adrenaline junkie rampage that would make Hunter S. Thompson
blush, and for every pulse-pounding bat out of hell drive to Vegas, there’s the
stiff drink taper back at the hotel and anti-drug convention on the Strip. It’s a season that will never be replicated
by anyone, let alone the players currently on the come down right after it.

For
this year’s edition, the sign of a good team is the “next man up” setup. Though
more of an addition by subtraction strategy, the rotating door leadoff man (now
apparently Zobrist’s spot to lose) has been the most consistent example of
this. Putting players like Schwarber and Rizzo put just as much faith in their
replacement clean up hitters as it does the big names at the top of the order:
they got on base, someone’s still got to drive them in. Not many other teams have the luxury of
affording a bat like Rizzo’s being taken away from an RBI opportunity at least
once a game.

Cubbies
have also had their fair share of blowout losses (can’t seem to recall us
having a game scheduled for the day before the All-Star break either, weird),
but they’re very much a one at-bat away team still. Part Palehose pessimism,
part Cubs lineup giving no real room to breathe, yesterday wasn’t over until
the very end. Have said it a million times here, but we’re a lineup that wins
if and (aside from a couple games) only if we get the timely home runs. We also give up a LOT of them, hence me
repeating “live by the long ball, die by the long ball” a million times here.
Lived by it Monday, died by it early Tuesday.
(Carlos Rodon doesn’t like the thought of home run balls being thrown
back, wants to make sure someone goes home with a souvenir).

Coming
into the year I didn’t think the N.L. Central would be a division that you
could hover around .500 and be competitive in, but the Cardinals decline and
the trending towards reality Brewers have kept the Cubs afloat. With the
playoff experience under their belts, I think the first half of this year will
be a gone and forgotten footnote on the team.
Decent pitching and this lineup should be good to keep the other side of
the league nervous through fall.

Fun to
see some good games to start out a series I usually don’t think lives up to the
hype. Today’s beanball fireworks were odd. Abreu’s HBP I can live with- those
are bullets off Superman’s chest at this point- but don’t you scorn our Beloved
Son again, Lackey. Hell hath no fury like a pissed off Hawk Harrelson (“WHAT
ARE YOU DO-ING WEG-NER?!?!)

Sunday, July 23, 2017

I’ve
always compared a bad bullpen to a bad offensive line: it’s the most
frustrating, it’s the hardest to fix, and it’s the most obvious flaw when it’s
the weakest part of your team. Grant it,
this isn’t previous years when our relievers were rotating tryouts: there’s
help coming, and hopefully soon. Reynaldo Lopez should be the next man up
(shoutout to u/Chicago_45, I agree), and Kopech’s worth a look at some point as
well.

If you’re
a baseball purist that never leaves early or a clockwatcher that hates games
going over three hours (not much in the middle of that venn diagram), this won’t
be a fun second half. I’m hoping we can make the first six or seven innings
bearable and keep on tankin’ on by the time most of our family fanbase is out
of the parking lots with the kids in bed. I didn’t expect to see the bullpen
completely bottom out after the Yankees trade, but I’m sure the chaos has a
little bit to do with this weekend’s struggles.
That and Shields and Holland not being able to keep the ball in the park
(hopefully innings-eating Derek is back soon).

The
Moncada watch is going to be the one thing getting me through this losing
streak, and it was interesting this weekend. The triple was a thing of beauty,
and he’s got an uncanny eye at the plate for someone so young. Not concerned
with his average if he’s hitting the ball hard. Maybe we’ll even get a dinger
out of him this week to make the inevitable bullpen collapses against the Cubs
more manageable.

Speaking
of the Cubs, check out that Eloy Jimenez statline from today to drown those
sorrows.

Thursday, July 20, 2017

Wait… how did I get here? All these references to black and
white, south not north, something about a rate that’s guaranteed not chewing
gum? Allow me to introduce myself: you
can call me Chris the Curmudgeon Cubs Fan (or just Chris.) I’m being allowed to contribute to Disco
Demolished as a North-Side supporter (gasp!) because I like baseball. And I love Chicago. And the founder of this blog is a longtime
friend of mine. So here goes!

Fortunately for all of us, the two Chi-town teams gave me a
great lead-off as a contributor to this blog with a certain trade that happened
exactly one week ago. A deal that many
thought would never happen because of the societal implications on our fair
city was announced early Thursday morning July 13th—and I swear I
could hear “Kumbaya” mixed with “Why Can’t We Be Friends” ringing through the
streets. The White Sox traded Jose
Quintana to the Cubs for prospects Eloy Jimenez, Dylan Cease and two others.

But you knew that already.
Maybe as a Sox fan you even turned on the Cubs game this past Sunday
just to see Q deal one more time before fully moving on. (It was quite the first performance, I must
say: 7 IP, 0 R, 3 H with 12 Ks- a Cubs’ debut record. His curveball was simply nasty.) However, amidst the rebuild I’m sure many
fans saw Quintana’s departure coming. So
perhaps you weren’t as sad as you’d normally be about losing a player of his
caliber. His landing spot being the team
across town? That might make you kick
some dirt in protest…

Never fear, though!
Let this Cubs fan tell you what you’re getting in return. Eloy Jimenez—the headliner of the deal—is
projected to be an absolute stud.
Many major league comparisons have been drawn between him and Giancarlo
Stanton. His power is just that
pure. Reserve the left corner outfield
spot for him in about 1-2 years (as he still sits in low AA ball) and trust
that with a bit more development, the #14 overall prospect in 2016 will
flourish into a great player.
Additionally, Dylan Cease will be joining the Sox. He came in at #97 in last year’s prospect
rankings and his stuff was also highly touted as legitimate. A great slider and a plus fastball for
starters, he had time and baseball IQ on his side to develop a third pitch and
be a starter one day. (Once again—not for a while. Cease was even lower in the minors than
Jimenez: high-A.)

The Cubs had the luxury of being patient with these two
prospects having stacked their farm system with plenty of other talented
players after several years of terrible baseball gained them many top-10 draft
slots. But Cubs fans knew they were
coming and were excited for their time to come.
That’s why, when I heard the news that BOTH Jimenez and Cease would be traded
for a viable #2 starter, I was slightly disappointed. Sure, I knew what we would be getting with
Quintana and was quite pleased with that for several reasons: addressed a need
this year, controlled and at a bargain price for his stature. And that’s the sign of a good—or should I say
fair—trade. Both sides should feel it
yet be optimistic about the future.

Theo Epstein—I’ve been told by non-Cubs fans—has gained a
reputation for allegedly “ripping other GMs off.” I don’t think that’s the case here- Cubs gain
for the now, Sox gain for the later. I’ll concede the Addison Russell acquisition
for Jason Hammel. But getting Arrieta
and Strop for Scott Feldman and Steve Clevenger was a move of taking players
the Orioles had essentially given up on for players that were having good
seasons on a terrible team by May of 2013.
That’s just taking advantage of opportunity and scouting. Once they let Arrieta pitch like he wanted
to- which they saw a mile away- he turned out to be great. Sabermetrics.
Boom. Should be what happens here
with Quintana, though he did pitch like he wanted to- the run support was
another issue.

Turns out Rick Hahn is taking a page out of Theo’s book. He is doing a great job of getting the best packages for his best players and
restocking the minors for a healthy longevity of his team. It worked for the Cubs and Astros. Now many
other teams are realizing it’s the way things have to be done. (It’s also true that this was always the case
and that trying to get around that approach doesn’t work.) And in turn, as
evidenced by this crosstown trade, it allows a club to flip prospects for
major-league proven commodities.
Especially pitching, which is always a gamble for every team coming up
through the minors. My guess is after
the Cubs drafted Brandon Little and Alex Lange (LSU starting staff headliner
from the College World Series), they felt they could make them their pitching
projects of the future and deal Cease.

The fact remains that Cease was probably best starting
prospect that Cubs had and when you want to acquire a starter from another
team, they will want pitching in return (at least.) This trade was necessary for the Cubs with
Arrieta almost assuredly gone in the offseason.
Scott Boras is going to demand way too much for a guy who’s pitched his
arm off helping the Cubs win a lot of playoff baseball the past two years and
as I said- there’s not much pitching in line for the Cubs in the minors (my one
knock on Theo and his work so far in Chicago.
I think I’ll get over it…) But
make no mistake; the White Sox now have plenty of arms and position players to
make them serious contenders in a few years and that is great for baseball and
the city. So… you’re welcome. And thanks for Q.

In the
midnight hour, the “drop everything and go” game was finally circled on the
calendar.

But
first, the brief series recap. Kershaw deserves much better than the west coast
sports treatment, not even needing his best stuff to shut us out game one. These
Dodgers will eat strikeout pitchers alive: the way to beat them seems to be
pitching incredibly carefully, and not giving them extra outs. Rodon gave up
four homers and walked three. Most notable player was Chicago weather, sparing
us an additional inning of obvious rebuild work and cutting game two short.

The
real news was never going to take place on the field this week, though.
Frazier, Robertson, and Kahnle are the latest Reinsdorf one way ticket
purchases, going Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and heading from the Midwest to the
Big Apple. Kahnle is the obvious biggest
loss- Frazier seemed to need a change of pace, Robertson had about five games
of actual closer work this year- but he’s what got us Blake Rutherford in all
likelihood. Missed him already last night when Beck was struggling and my first
thought was “who… who’s left?”

What’s
in it for the Yankees:

Hot Toddy: 318 to left at Yankee
Stadium, so the five hundred fly balls that fell less than 10 feet short this
year will finally be souvenirs. As the season wore on it became clear that some
big change was needed, and this could be the fix for him. Having Judge around
him should give him some peace of mind as well- guessing he took a lot of
pressure on himself this year with a young roster. I’ve been guessing Boston
for about a month now for where he’d land, now I’m not sure how much interest
he really garnered there. Which makes
sense- we’ve done our mega-deal with them already, what more would they want to
give us, especially for a power hitter in a down year? I’d expect a hot start
from him: he wants to prove to himself that he can put a rough first half
behind him, and being on a competitor should be the adrenaline rush he didn’t
have at White Sox Daycare this year.

Robertson: If there’s one fanbase I
would not expect to forgive and forget, it’d be the Yankees. Dave only has one
black mark on his Pinstripes card, but it’s a big one: his blown save
technically set the stage for Derek Jeter’s walk-off last game, but I wouldn’t
expect to head back to New York without expecting a couple “but if…”. Honestly,
I think his biggest issue is just going to be adjusting back to bonafied
closing situations: he’s had one run games, he’s had two inning saves, he’s had
runners on and I need multiple outs here. He hasn’t had “it’s Sunday at Fenway,
it’s the rubber game, it’s the heart of the order coming up” this year. He
hasn’t had “two on, two outs, Bautista’s up, and I’m pitching the ninth next
inning” this year. There’s a different
pressure to a closer on a competitive team that doesn’t happen on teams like
the White Sox, and I think he’ll have a blown save or two in the dog days as he’s
adjusting. In the few actual save situations this season, he’s been very solid,
and if he keeps it up I think the Yankees will be close to even in the closing
department.

World’s Worst Teammate Tommy Kahnle: I can’t
imagine any major league baseball player being less than friendly, and LaTroy
Hawkin’s word is known as canon league-wide, so thank God this character issue
is out of our clubhouse. Far and away
the most reliable of the relievers this year- again, not much else in the
bullpen now that he’s gone. Guessing he’ll thrive in the adrenaline rush.
Biggest get for the Yankees in this trade, and deservedly so.

The Sox
haul:

Blake Rutherford: The top prospect,
officially our tenth in the Top 100, but one I’m gonna wait on. Too much of a climb left for a single-A 20
year old, but the potential’s there.
Curious to see where he’ll fit in for an outfield that’s already pretty
crowded at the moment. .281 with 55 strikeouts so far: assume he’ll fit right
in to our power hitting tradition once he gets more loft on the ball more
consistently.

Tyler Clippard: Lot of searches on Gif
sites for “people celebrating” by Yankees fans when his departure was
announced. Journeyman with an ERA a tick below 5.00- and our new closer. They
teach us in the Midwest to swerve into the skid.

Tito Polo: Spitting distance of .300
and speedy in single A. Also apparently getting his power numbers up. Also,
minor league player, major league name.
Crowded outfield once again, but definitely some steal potential here.

Not
feeling quite as good about this trade as some of the others, but there was
less value on our end. Essentially
moving pieces that weren’t going to play much of a part in the rebuild to begin
with.

Now for
the biggest news of the week, and the day our lives forever changed: the Yoan
Moncada call up.

I
personally would not have minded (at the start of the season, preferred) him
just riding it out in the minors until next season. Of all the prospects we’ve
gotten, this is not the one I want to rush.
If I’m resigned to a lost year and waiting for the future, I’d rather
make sure all of our prospects are major league ready at all cost and have them
be overprepared later than “seems like a good time” now.

That
being said, what a difference one call up makes. Have never bought a spur of
the moment ticket faster than when the news broke. The Red Line was packed… in
the Dan Ryan direction! 45 minutes to game time, and I actually had to wait
more than five minutes at 35th Red Hots. I waited in an actual line
at concessions, as opposed to walking swiftly to the concourse, walking back to
my seat, without missing a pitch in between innings. Entire sections of the
Park sold out on TicketMaster, to the point where we actually waited until
after his first at-bat to scout open seats to move down to. It was what I hoped would happen with all of
these call-ups: support the rebuild, and give the kids a warm welcome when they
come up.

I don’t want to do a first game recap of how I thought he did. I will say
he had some pretty ballsy takes in his walk (based on the replay- I wasn’t
calling balls and strikes from the upper corners) and some good contact on his
line out. And I’ll let the excitement of getting to see the Beloved Son
outweigh my “keep him in the minors” logic hardwire. I think the biggest key is
patience with him, as he’ll probably make a couple errors and might struggle at
the plate, and some meatheads might wonder why this is the guy we traded Sale
for. My success line for him is .260 while making the plays he needs to make at
second. Welcome to the show, Yoan, and thanks for putting up with us, all
recently traded folks. Hope you like the new pinstripes.

Sunday, July 16, 2017

Catching a ball at a game- the odd
pro bono souvenir that’s one of the weirder boys to men things (sometimes vice
versa- “Give it to the kid! Give it to the kid!”). I’m public now and can poke
my head out of internet anonymity as an Illinois alum, meaning my usual
bleacher bum habit was a little more justified Friday with the Illini Night promo.
Ticket + hat + early entrance for BP, and I took advantage of all of it.

Sometime in ’05 we got tickets that
included the voucher for getting into the park early to watch the Sox take batting
practice. My most vivid memories from that game are Damaso Marte getting booed
out of the park on a four pitch walk, and me missing the one ball hit close to
me after not backing up on it. History fixed the former, and Friday was my
chance to fix the latter.

Actually going was a pretty
spontaneous thing, so I didn’t bring a glove as opposed to the last time. Given
that last time was a long time ago,
it was going to be intentional anyway: I’m now “if you bring it, you HAVE to catch it” age for glove at a
game. Plan B was the fish net trick from
“Faithful”- I went with Plan C of finding the seats early and having them hit
it to me. “See, kids, this is how it’s done. I think.”

The good news, the plan worked: two
balls hit right to me. The bad news: fool me twice, déjà vu- through my right
hand, three rows back. Think the sun was a factor in the ’05 flub, but pretty
ideal conditions with the overcast this time around. The second was a ricochet
that hit off a glove two rows below and off my left thigh. Have seen enough off the glove plays not work
out to rule against an error here. Got it when it hit the ground and gave it to
some kid at the end of the row when it was all over: “I got it at the Sox game batting
practice after I missed one then someone else missed the next and I did too ‘cus
it was a tough hop but it landed in front of me and I picked it up” isn’t the
story to come home with. Have been the “didn’t
catch one today” kid enough to sympathize with them- probably because I’m now
the grown-up version.

Anyway, baseball was played this
weekend, and some decently entertaining baseball at that. Another hit to the
dead horse for the new readers: we live by the long ball, we die by the long ball.
Prototypical James Shields start: strikeout mentality without the K’s to show
for it, walks, and a bad home run given up. Had a weirdly slow pace for a game
without many scoring plays, though we did do a good job bringing Paxton’s pitch
count up. Friday night bleachers a blast
as always: had a frat reunion the row in front of us and a family behind us, combining
for bipolar heckles of Gamel in left: “Ben! You look like a Spice Girl!” chirps
from the Sig Chis met with “Don’t listen to them! You’re handsome!” from the
wise for their age first graders. Gamel didn’t take them too personally,
throwing a ball up to a fan back and to our left. He traded it to frat row for
a Modelo, to louder applause from the crowd. Probably should’ve held Junior to
the same standard.

Saturday night, another die by long
ball. Melky’s had a couple “team on my back” games this year, Saturday being one
of them. Seems to take an odd liking to the leadoff spot. Two homers for three
runs enough for the M’s.

Sunday
rounded out the sweep, and the Mariners win three straight the Earl Weaver way.
Was great to see Narvaez get a dinger, and it was great the whole series to see
Avi rope a couple. Errors killed us, and it always stings a little bit more
when it’s Anderson: I’m big on the guy and think it’s just a sophomore slump.
But some of the errors he’s made this year have been real head scratchers.
Defense, stellar bullpen that gives up one run in an entire series, and three
run home runs- that was the Weaver quote verbatim, right? Mariners win in
extras.

Some quick hits:

-Another trade from Genghis Hahn: Yeyson Yrizarri
to us for international monies. I can take this time to admit how little I
still know about how international signing works, aside from us not being able
to use much of it for a little while. Either way, we’re probably going to be
sitting on that cash for a little while now after signing Robert, so there’s
not much lost here for us. Biggest pro about him so far: 70 for throwing on the
scouts’ 80 scale. Could have a converted
pitcher experiment on our hands if his hitting doesn’t pan out.

-Zach Burdi. Brutal. Probably was going to get
the first call up of any of the prospects, be it this September or the start of
next season. The biggest thing going forward with him now is going to be
control: a couple miles an hour off a fastball that hits 101 won’t kill a
career, but a 95 mph fastball that misses consistently will. Some John Danks
PTSD here. It’s not the career killer it used to be, so get well, Burdi.

-Hey Boston, I see you had a 16-inning loss
yesterday and seem to have had a rough weekend on offense. Perhaps we have a
third baseman that can provide some fresh legs for you. (And he definitely didn’t
strike out in extras in an all fastballs at-bat today, no sir)

-It’s interesting now that the dust has settled
to see the deals that almost went down for Quintana- methinks the Brewers had
the next best package and that pressured Theo into getting it done. Still not
sure why the Cardinals never expressed interest. Braves supposedly offered
Albies, and I’m guessing not much else (don’t think Q would’ve made sense for
the Braves anyway). Astros and Yankees supposedly expressed some interest, but
we don’t want to give them the edge for the 2019 ALDS and ALCS.

I’ll also give a nod to White Sox
Dave’s tweets after the Quintana trade: this series probably wasn’t a fluke for
us. With Quintana gone, there aren’t going to be a lot of winnable games for us
coming up. We’re going to lose a LOT of
baseball games for the rest of this season.
Now, though, is the time to show your support for the work Jerry, Hahn,
Ricky and the rest of the White Sox organization have put in. Come on a night with a cool giveaway. Come
for the Crosstown and wear your white and black. Head over after work for a
weekday game, get your $3 second market tickets, and sit wherever. The moves
are purposeful, the plan’s in place, and this is going to be a great team. Show up for rebuild, phase
one and boost attendance- tickets might not come as cheap sooner than we think.

Thursday, July 13, 2017

Ol’
Richie Gatsby wheelin’ & dealin’ & doin’ the damn thing. It’s been an if not when deal since this time
last year, with me admittedly going back and forth from “just let us have one
good start every five days to get us through this season” and “send the man
anywhere for mental health reasons” a dozen times on this site alone. We knew
the price was high for Q, and today we found out just how high, to the tune of “welp” in various harmonies from Cubs
fans.

Despite
the constant talks, I’m not really sure when Q started getting talked about on
a league-wide level. My gut says winter meetings, but only after Sale got
dealt. Even last year’s trade deadline talks were “if not Sale, why not
Quintana?”. He’s a tough pitcher to put
into perspective for the rest of the league- face value for this deal is a lot
for a 4-8, 4.50 ERA guy- and it would be a long, sad tale featuring a lot of
gifs of Tyler Flowers and Adam LaRoche striking out. Here’s a quicker breakdown
of the trade:

Jose Quintana

Take Hawkisms for what you
will, but one’s been absolutely true: If Jose didn’t have bad luck, he’d have
no luck at all. His White Sox tenure was a house on Indian burial ground,
featuring 65 no-decisions in five and a half seasons. Keep repeating for any
“buts” your Cubs friends might have for Q: 169 career starts. 65 no
decisions. He’s not the “Cy Young winner
if on any other team” pitcher Chris Sale was, but this is a dangerous pitcher
to have on the bump with any semblance of consistent run support.

For
what it’s worth, here’s the most “bad luck Q” game I’ve seen in person, from
last year:

-The bad: Q gives up two home runs to Brian
Dozier, for a game total of 4 earned runs. Most analyses of Quintana would
start and end there.

-The good: Q goes seven full innings. Dozier
would have three of the Twins’ six hits against him. Of those Dozier home runs,
one was a solo shot: they would go 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position.
The dagger was a three run home run, which came after 6.2 innings pitched.
Through five Quintana had only given up the home run and a leadoff double that
did not score. He’d strike out eight on the day.

-The Minnesota Twins would go on to lose 103
games. The starting pitcher for them
that day was Kyle Gibson, who entered the game 0-5 in 7 starts with a 6.05 ERA.

-The White Sox would get shut out. They would
give Quintana 4 hits of support and go 0 for 8 with runners in scoring
position.

-Jose Quintana would get the loss.

These starts seemed to happen at
least once a month for Q. For a full recap of Jose’s time with the Sox, watch
Shawshank Redemption and turn it off when Warden Norton gives Andy another
month in solitary. Make Wrigley his Zihuatanejo, Northsiders.

Mean time, the Sox haul:

Eloy Jimenez

Not much to say here that Cubs fans
haven’t already. The fact that fans were
trying to figure out a way to fit him on the major league roster post-All Star
Break is a hell of a review, be it the overreaction to the flat first half or
legitimate ready-now excitement. Huge testament to Q that the asking price was
this high throughout the process, and that the Cubs have enough faith in him to
give up a top 5 prospect for him.

I can’t think of a better farm system than
ours now with his addition, at least for position players (Braves may still be
about even with pitching). We have an odd abundance of outfielders now, with or
without Avisail “Suddenly an All-Star” Garcia. Hoping this is a good adrenaline
shot for May and Willy.

Tough loss for the Cubs, but their
window is now. There’s enough star power
on their roster to retool later if need be.
I think it’s mostly a surprise because of how prospect oriented Theo is,
but I hold his judgment to the same level of my grandparents and lifelong
monks. Q will pitch this year’s division clincher, Jimenez will hit home runs
five rows behind my bleacher seats in three years. It’s a win for everyone.

Dylan Cease

Kopech and Giolito are near foaming
at the mouth level excitement this year.
That being said, pitching prospects are the development equivalent of
hitting on 15, and going into this I wanted one more (as many as possible,
really). Cease seems like a sneaky good addition, coming in at No. 97 on the
Baseball America prospect list with a mean curve. I’m not too sure where he
falls on the timeline as a 21 year-old single-A pitcher, so I’m not expecting
him to get called up with the rest of the class of 2020, but can’t be too
careful and a good buffer if the arms we already stocked up don’t pan out.

Matt Rose

Sox tweet says first baseman,
scouting report says third baseman. I’ll leave Cub fans to comment and
clarify. I don’t want Moncada playing
third, so if he pans out, I hope it’s the latter (though this season has me a
little more skeptical on Abreu’s defense). Supposedly very speedy with decent
hitting, though hitting .217 in single-A currently. A wait and see.

Bryant Flete

Second baseman on Baseball America-
he’ll want Hakuna Moncada at third a lot more than I will. .285 last year .305
this year in single-A. I see him more as a utility guy than a starter in the
2020 plan.

It’s a
win for both sides when it comes down to it. It’s the same “I can’t believe we
wasted your prime” feeling I got with Sale, but Q needed a change of scenery
much more than he did. For us, follow course. For the Cubs, let’s get some
runs. It’s overdue for your new guy.

Sunday, June 11, 2017

If you’re an Indians fan who went to the game Friday night,
kudos to you. It might be a lost series
and it’s probably more enjoyable to see good baseball than a game where your
team gets eliminated, but they showed up Friday and deserve a lot of credit.

In any
right, the Tribe were bound to win that game, right? Cleveland sports misery to
seeming to be a thing of the past, they couldn’t risk the chance of a loss that
night to go with the possible soul crushing defeat of a Final sweep for the
Cavs. (My own biased opinion says the Warriors got a frozen envelope to make
the Series go 5, but you’re not here for my basketball thoughts).

Worst
part of Friday (we did have fight in us) was Miguel, which is unfortunate for
how high on him I was at the start of the year. Little less than five innings
of work and two leads given up for our most reliable pitcher at the start of
the season. I also sort of wonder if having Petricka pitch for the first time
in a while was the right call there- good for a pressure game situation to get
him reacclimated, bad for a game we’d like to have where a one run lead gets
squandered. Decent hitting and a little better with runners in scoring
position, but the outcome not in our favor.

(I also
love the odd modern-day scenario of a game ending on a challenge. Doesn’t
happen often but is the most needlessly tense rare situation in baseball today.
Goose Gossage would’ve torched the field if he stayed the duration of this
one.)

Next
game, much better with runners in scoring position, different outcome this
time. I love a home run out of the nurture over nature side of growing up a Sox
fan, but there’s something beautiful about runs off of consecutive base hits
that I’ve grown to like even more, especially with this lineup. Four early runs
all on singles, an insurance run late on a sac fly. Solid night for Holmberg (I’ll
give him the benefit of the doubt on that Encarnacion homer, he was roping
pitches all series), not so solid night for the bullpen. Kudos to Robertson for
nailing the tough two inning save- that curve was a thing of beauty.

Frustrating
to see “just good enough” Q not get the win this time around. Sort of saw the
writing on the wall when no runs crossed the plate for us until the sixth. It
was good to see a competitive series- all the games felt close- but this one
would’ve been a really good one for Q to get to turn things around a little bit
more. Thought it’d be a little uglier after nine games on the road, and braced
myself for a lost series, so I’m just glad we hung around. Mean time, this road
trip is ov-ahh.

Some
quick hits:

-Encarnacion, good Lord. That foul ball in the
rubber game was an inhumanely far distance away. Run out fly balls, hustle,
yadda yadda… but, maybe you’re a little exempt if home plate to landing spot
off your bat doubles as a cross country course.

-I think I brought it up in the Red Sox blog, but
after a really solid series I hope Rick’s on the phone with them about Frazier.
Not out of “I think we’d get a good return”, but it’s the place I see as the
best fit for him. Those balls that fall five feet short at Comiskey will be in
a better place with the Monster to left and the short porch to right.

Friday, June 9, 2017

I could get used to “good enough for the team to eventually
win” Quintana. Lights out Quintana usually means little run support and a
loss/no decision (see also: good enough for the team to eventually win
Quintana), and bad Quintana usually means he’s mentally spent from the former.
A win like that, being slightly better than Archer (at least outcome-wise), can
really help his trade value, but at this point I think that’s a little bit
trickier.

At this
point, I’m starting to think holding onto Quintana for at least this year may
be the better move. I think much of the to do in regards to him struggling at
times is partly due to his position on the trading block- even when making
millions, knowing you might lose your job soon alters your performance no
matter what. It might be more the hometown bias talking, but I don’t think
there’s much value in keeping our number one starter on the string until the
trade deadline and having that weighing on him for the next two months. Let him
be a reliable starter the rest of this year, give him the peace of mind to do
so, and check back on our options come the offseason. We have no idea which
Shields and Rodon we’re getting when they get back from injury, let’s save Q
for our safety net.

The
other two games, just flat. Pelfrey’s back luck streak continues with just three
hits of support, welcome to the show Jacob Faria. Holland fell flat, we can’t bring runners in,
we drop the rubber game. That A.L. East, man. Something else this year. As much
as I want Cleveland to be different, I think we’re gonna wind up treading water
until the home stand at the end of the month. Even at home, Baltimore will be a
tough series, and Cleveland and Minnesota will be tough tests when we’re road
ragged. Will be a good gauger, but I’d add another loop to the already circled
Buehrle game on your calendar.

When you leave the game and your team hits the go ahead home run before you get the ice pack on

Friday, June 2, 2017

I like going to a full series if I’m able to- aside from the
traditional scheduling, it is interesting to follow lineup changes, adjustment
to different pitchers, and subtle changes as the teams get more familiar with
each other. If I’m doing it, I usually prefer a non-divisional opponent, as
that unfamiliarity makes the games more fun and the adjustments more obvious to
my non-athlete blogger eye. Family picked up tickets for Memorial Day, friends
got group tickets for the Wednesday, and I figured why not round it out even
before Sale’s start was announced. For the site’s sake, as well, I also wanted
to break up the monotony of the post-series recaps (didn’t do one for the
Tigers series, so here goes: sometimes we were the below average team, but more
times they were the below average team), so here’s a live-ish blog I kept-ish
during the series. Here goes:

Game 1

-Bad omen to kick this one off: ticket scanners
down. Not quite the Opening Day fiasco last year, but not ideal for the
Memorial Day game. Print out a backup
even if it’s mobile entry, kids.

-Sunglass giveaways, but thirteen and under. Not in the market for cheap giveaway
sunglasses, but I can’t help but think of the guy who now has the job of
telling grown adults that they can’t have sunglasses.

-Lot of military honors in a great pregame
ceremony. Not a lot of them going right into the next. Good little cardio
workout going between sitting and standing for a good fifteen minutes.

-That Jose Abreu put out slide. Yikes. Holmberg
obviously a little slow to the bag, but that was a dangerous way to get just
one out. Always sucks when a dumb mistake ends in the other team getting
injured needlessly, and losing Pedey for the series was a huge bummer. I’ve
brought up Abreu’s defense plenty and the sentiment holds here.

-Next play brings in a run: Abreu slides going
backwards and has his back to home plate as Betts tags up. Sort of wonder if
the better move would have been letting it drop, though any chance to move
through the front half of the Red Sox lineup is probably the better move. 1-0
Red Sox.

-Providence boy Sam Travis back to Chicago in a
cool hometown debut. Saw him play there, at Indiana, and now in the big
leagues. Had to ask a group of guys in Celtics apparel if they were there when
he was- one said that he was and that he had a higher average than him his
senior year. Didn’t want to say that .541 would be pretty hard to top, but I’ll
wait until his name gets called at the draft to lock in that opinion.

-It’s awesome when Tim Anderson playing stellar
defense. It’s awesome when, all logic of a leadoff hitter be damned, he’s
hitting home runs. But there’s no better look for good ol’ TA than throwing his
bat back towards the dugout and taking first on a walk. I have weird bucket
lists for things, but seeing that happen has to be the weirdest one I’ve
crossed off in a while.

-I’ll likely make a case for Saladino as well
when he gets back from the DL. I’ve also already called him a Moncada
placeholder on r/whitesox. But Sanchez’s play this year has me a little more
convinced on seeing where he’d fit in for the rebuild. The big assumption is
that we and no one else in the league consider him to be an everyday player,
and his options are pretty limited for where he’d play in the infield (second
and short are locked down and I think third’s a bit of a stretch for him). He
is, though, turning into the crafty utility guy we’ve wanted him to be, and
there could very well be a place for speed on the bags and a timely pinch hit
going forward that he could fill. Setting the table for the comeback seventh
has me convinced he can play that role well.

-Live by the long ball, die by the long ball.
Melky basically single handedly won this game for us, between the early home
run and the go ahead in the seventh. Even if they don’t play a role in this big
picture rebuild, it’s great to have vets around for moments like that.

-Stressful bottom of the ninth- not because of
the save situation, but because of the Rock Island train I had to catch to make
a cookout. If I’m committing to going to every game in a series, might as well
to commit to making sure I stay for the entirety of the games. Couldn’t afford
extra innings in this case, and luckily that didn’t happen. Sox take game 1.

Game 2

-Scene around the Red Sox bullpen already a mob
scene when we go check it out a half hour before game time to watch Sale warm
up. Only one person throwing shade and making a cut-up jersey joke. Was wearing
a “jersey demolished” shirt so you have that to look forward to for a third-rate
blog like this in twenty years.

-They also had a kids walk around the field thing
before the game that went into Sale’s warm up. Completely coincidental, but
probably a little bit “Don’t like promotions huh? How about we do the only one
possible that would affect your particular game prep?”. Also, the stragglers from the walk the park
crew who Chris Sale politely went around to get to and from bullpen didn’t
really act like it was Chris Sale who was politely going around them to get to
and from the bullpen.

-Got upgraded seats, going from the upper deck
behind home plate to about a dozen rows back down first base line. (For
legality sake, let’s say it was through the Ballpark App…) Was basically a sea
of red with a few Palehose shirts mixed here and there. Ironically, watching
Boston play seemed exactly like being in Red Sox fan directed Argo.

-The true story of the night was the Red Sox fans
in front of us. Buddy and I cheered the Betts leadoff K for whoever won that
Plinko promo- basically thing lands on a player, if they strikeout the whole
row gets a t shirt or a Beggar’s slice that’s still frozen solid or whatever.
Couple goes on the offensive right away- all good fun before the fight threats
start. I’ve heard Fenway tales past of security guards breaking up a fight then
making them bro hug it out after as punishment- that particular one ended in
peace and cheers from the crowd, but I don’t want to find out if that’d work
here as well.

-All three Sox outs in the first go down via
strikeouts. I, uh, don’t think this is just another game for Sale.

-More trouble in the 2nd- Red Sox take
a big four run league, White Sox cut it down to one right away. We’re cheering
but keeping it to ourselves as the threats spread to the section over. I’m used
to the east coast swagger but the Doomsday Clock’s pretty close to midnight
now.

-Speaking of close to midnight, that’s where this
game’s headed: 90 minutes in and we’re barely through two. I’ve grown a beard
that goes down to my knees and my buddy has to head to the concourse after a
family member submits a missing persons report.

-Unrelated to the game but “beer colder than my
ex-wife on a winter morning” vendor is the best employee in the White Sox
organization.

-Guy next to threat lady gets a little
uncomfortable. Counting on him to have my back despite being her allegiance
team wise.

-Deven Marrero, batting below the Mendoza and
first name spelled wrong on his birth certificate, hits his second home run of
the night. Red Sox take a four run lead. Doomsday Girl periscopes our misery,
not knowing you can’t hurt what’s been dead inside for years.

-HOT TODDY!!! Things officially interesting now.
We’re also approaching the two hour mark on this game, even if we lose Major
League Baseball may strip the record of this game to say they don’t have a pace
of the game problem.

-I bring up Jerry Remy to the fans in front of
us. This was their password as it turns out and the hands on the Doomsday clock
move away from midnight.

-JBJ hits a three run shot, and I’m not sure how
much firepower we have left in us. We look up what the longest nine inning game
in MLB history was. I’d say we were rooting for history at this point to tell
our kids, but they’ve actually been born and raised at the ballpark during this
game. (4 and a half hours in Colorado, if you were curious)

-Lot of fans taking off due to the time, lot of
upgrades for those sticking around. That app’s really working hard tonight.

-Bogaerts homers to put the game out of reach. My
grandkids call wondering why I don’t spend enough time with them.

-Moreland homers to put it way out of reach. My
buddy takes off. I definitely debate going as well, but climate change has run
its course by now and everything around the ballpark is underwater.

-Anderson pops up to end it. Game manages to
become official just before the end of days. Even series.

Game 3

-Buddy from last night and a couple others go as
a group to this one. It has been fifty years between the starts of these games
and it was an emotional reunion.

-Between the visiting Boston fans and the sad/odd
new trend of Cubs apparel at White Sox games, it was a big series for non-White
Sox team apparel. Oddest one of the three days: Calgary Flames home t shirt.

-Bleacher seats, no moving needed. All is right
with the world.

-Pomeranz and Pelfrey: the pitching duel we all
saw coming going into the series.

-There’s no bigger pro to poor attendance than
the big dice roll game coming to an abrupt end for a section that doesn’t have
people in the first few rows. Take or leave moving to better seats and short
lines for everything, I can deal with the first stage tanking if it means a
full season of row 5 trying to heave a giant die onto the field with all the
strength they can muster.

-Much better pace than the night before. The
eternal struggle of the pace of game debate: you can have high scoring and a
longer game, or low scoring and a better game. Usually can’t have both.

-Sandoval unrecognizable from far away in his
first start back. Stephen King probably intervened for the sake of his team and
sent that gypsy from “Thinner” to his house. Gives the Red Sox the lead in the
sixth.

-Clutch two out double from Vazquez gives Boston
a lot of breathing room. That bullpen we had was fun for a month.

-Craig Kimbrel. Christ on a bike. We send out
Narvaez in the hopes of any left handed batter getting us through. Can see
strike three from the right field bleachers. We lose the series.

Wish we could’ve hung around more
against a good team. Central opponents on the road trip should even that out I
hope.